0:00:21 > 0:00:25The British have traditionally regarded Ireland as a place apart.
0:00:25 > 0:00:31A wild, unruly, uncivilised land in need of modernisation and pacification.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34But what this British view of history conveniently forgets
0:00:34 > 0:00:37is that around 1,500 years ago,
0:00:37 > 0:00:40during a period that we used to refer to as The Dark Ages,
0:00:40 > 0:00:43the Irish played a very different role.
0:00:43 > 0:00:48Back then, it was the Irish that brought civilisation to Britain.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59It's an epic story of decline and renewal.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03Of how civilisation seemed lost forever.
0:01:03 > 0:01:08And of how the most unlikely of places - primitive, backward Ireland,
0:01:08 > 0:01:13provided the setting for one of the most profound social and cultural revolutions
0:01:13 > 0:01:17that Europe and Britain had ever seen.
0:01:34 > 0:01:40At the beginning of the 5th century, the Roman Empire seemed to be at its height.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44With its military power and vast wealth,
0:01:44 > 0:01:48it had spread culture and learning across the known world.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53From the Red Sea to the Atlantic,
0:01:53 > 0:02:00from the Middle East to the far reaches of North West Europe, a thousand miles away.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06I'm on what is now the English side of the Severn Estuary.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08Over there, of course, is Wales.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12But 1,600 years ago, when my journey begins,
0:02:12 > 0:02:14there was no England, and no Wales.
0:02:14 > 0:02:19Instead, all these lands were part of a province of the Roman Empire - Britannia.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27More than three centuries of Roman occupation had transformed Britain
0:02:27 > 0:02:33from an Iron Age society into a place of roads, towns and technology.
0:02:39 > 0:02:45The remains of this Roman villa in Gloucestershire are just a few miles from the Severn Estuary.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53It speaks of the comfort and luxury that Rome had brought to Britain.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59And with that prosperity came literacy, and law,
0:02:59 > 0:03:04and a sophisticated new religion...
0:03:08 > 0:03:09Christianity.
0:03:10 > 0:03:16Above all, the Roman Army protected Britannia from her hostile neighbours.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20In the North, the war-like Picts,
0:03:20 > 0:03:24kept at bay by Hadrian's Wall.
0:03:27 > 0:03:32And across the sea in the West, the Irish.
0:03:32 > 0:03:37Never conquered by the Empire, they were, to the Romans, the quintessential Barbarians.
0:03:37 > 0:03:42Wild and uncivilised, inhabiting a country without books,
0:03:42 > 0:03:46without towns, without roads.
0:03:53 > 0:03:58But suddenly in 406, the Empire was plunged into crisis
0:03:58 > 0:04:01when Germanic invaders attacked the Roman heartland.
0:04:09 > 0:04:15Britannia's legions were called home, leaving Britain vulnerable, and alone.
0:04:23 > 0:04:29Across the sea, and up the wide Severn Estuary, her enemies came.
0:04:35 > 0:04:40In the early 400s AD this place, it seems, was the scene of a terrible event.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44Thousands of men, women and children were abducted by pirates
0:04:44 > 0:04:47who specialised in people trafficking.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57It was the kind of raid that was happening more and more frequently in these troubled times.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59But one thing would make this raid different.
0:04:59 > 0:05:02One of the survivors would write an account of it.
0:05:02 > 0:05:08He was only 16 years old at the time, but he was destined to change Britain and Ireland forever.
0:05:08 > 0:05:10His name was Patrick.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23He and his fellow captives were bound for Ireland,
0:05:23 > 0:05:26where they were to be sold as slaves.
0:05:31 > 0:05:37As I follow in their wake, across the Irish Sea, it's easy to imagine their despair.
0:05:41 > 0:05:46In their Roman minds, they were crossing a gulf.
0:05:48 > 0:05:54Leaving behind the light of civilisation,
0:05:54 > 0:05:59and entering the darkness of a Barbarian land.
0:06:09 > 0:06:15The only country in Western Europe untouched by Rome, Ireland was still in the Iron Age.
0:06:18 > 0:06:23Petty and High Kings ruled over a tribal island of many kingdoms.
0:06:27 > 0:06:33It was a pagan land of subsistence farming, where wealth was measured in cattle.
0:06:34 > 0:06:39Small wonder that the Romans called it "Hibernia" -
0:06:39 > 0:06:41the land of winter.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57For Patrick it must have been extraordinarily difficult,
0:06:57 > 0:07:00because he was at the very, very bottom, he was a slave.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04I think he would have regarded the Irish as a bunch of savages.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08Coming from a wealthy, civilised background,
0:07:08 > 0:07:10finding himself in Ireland,
0:07:10 > 0:07:13not knowing the language, not knowing the customs,
0:07:13 > 0:07:16living in rather different circumstances,
0:07:16 > 0:07:20in fairly straightened circumstances, he must have been very resentful.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23How would Ireland have been different from Roman Britain?
0:07:23 > 0:07:26Ireland was just totally different.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29It would have been completely unfamiliar to Patrick.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32Ireland had no towns. Of course, it had a different language.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36It didn't have a network of roads like the Roman world.
0:07:36 > 0:07:43It didn't have the same commercial and production sector as the Roman world had.
0:07:43 > 0:07:49It didn't have grand villas and it wouldn't have had the same type of agricultural practices.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53So everything about Ireland was completely different.
0:07:53 > 0:07:58What would life have been like for the mass of humanity living in Ireland?
0:07:58 > 0:08:04I think nasty, brutish and short is the simple reply to that.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08People wouldn't have had a great life expectation.
0:08:08 > 0:08:14I think people, for the most part, would have died relatively young, possibly violently.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17Because warfare seems to have been endemic,
0:08:17 > 0:08:19mainly centred around cattle raids
0:08:19 > 0:08:22and the theft of one's neighbour's property.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26It must have been a pretty hard and pretty brutal existence.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58Rome's weakness had cost the young Patrick dear.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01Traditionally it was thought he went to Slemish Mountain in the northern part of Ireland.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04But modern scholars think that he may have ended his journey
0:09:04 > 0:09:07here in the hills of County Mayo on the west coast.
0:09:07 > 0:09:12He was put to work as a shepherd, which was normal for slave boys of his age.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23Faced with this alien surrounding and an unremittingly harsh life,
0:09:25 > 0:09:29the 16 year old Patrick seems to have turned to God.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43The God he was praying to was a Christian one, a Roman one,
0:09:43 > 0:09:47the God of his priest grandfather or his deacon father.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53Patrick's confessions tell us he didn't take Christianity
0:09:53 > 0:09:55that seriously before ending up as a slave here in Ireland.
0:09:57 > 0:10:02But once he did, it must have been a comfort, something to connect him with his lost life back home.
0:10:05 > 0:10:10After six years in captivity, his prayers were answered.
0:10:16 > 0:10:20He escaped from Ireland, and eventually made his way back to Britain.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26But if he thought he was leaving barbarism behind
0:10:26 > 0:10:29and returning to civilisation, he would soon have to think again.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45In the years since the Legions had pulled out of Britannia,
0:10:47 > 0:10:50order had given way to anarchy.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03Hadrian's Wall,
0:11:03 > 0:11:07built to keep out the Barbarian Picts,
0:11:11 > 0:11:16had once stood as an emblem of the power and security of Roman Britain.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22Now, it symbolised its disintegration.
0:11:23 > 0:11:29The Britons were left on their own to guard this wall and in fact the entire province.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32Bede, who's the father of English history, and one of its
0:11:32 > 0:11:35first great chroniclers, tells us what happened next.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38He wrote that a timorous guard were placed
0:11:38 > 0:11:41on this wall and they spent their days and nights in the utmost fear.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44And then they were attacked by the Picts from over there, they came
0:11:44 > 0:11:49with long hooked weapons and dragged the defenders off the wall and dashed them to the ground.
0:11:49 > 0:11:54It's a terrifying description of this period, of order turning into chaos.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20Vindolanda Fort, just a few miles from the wall,
0:12:20 > 0:12:27offers a vivid snap shot of the post Apocalyptic world that the British found themselves plunged into.
0:12:28 > 0:12:35The fort was one of the largest on the wall, with a population of well over 2000, some of them soldiers,
0:12:35 > 0:12:38others civilians living in the town outside.
0:12:44 > 0:12:48Andrew, I always think of Vindolanda as a classic high Roman site.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52I mean, what evidence is there here around us for what happens when the Romans leave?
0:12:52 > 0:12:55Well, the first thing that happens is that towns outside of walls,
0:12:55 > 0:12:59forts like this, and in particular Vindolanda, are suddenly abandoned.
0:13:00 > 0:13:03- Now why's that? - Well, probably the main reason
0:13:03 > 0:13:07is just a huge sense of insecurity and people are very, very nervous.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10They're anxious about their life and what's going to happen.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13They're fearful that the end of Roman Britain's coming and that the
0:13:13 > 0:13:17Barbarians and other people are gonna cause them grief and bodily harm.
0:13:17 > 0:13:22And as the Roman army slowly pulls out, this feeling of anxiety can only increase massively.
0:13:22 > 0:13:27So people hole up inside fort walls, they protect themselves as best they
0:13:27 > 0:13:32can, and they really sort of pull in their reins and their world view.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36This happens right across Britain and people retreat to more fortified positions.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47So what's the purpose of this raised platform on the wall, then?
0:13:47 > 0:13:49Here, they've put an artillery placement in
0:13:49 > 0:13:53to add a bit of offensive capability on the south side of this fort here.
0:13:53 > 0:13:57Most of the threat, as we rightly realise, came from the North, that's
0:13:57 > 0:14:00the reason for Hadrian's Wall is to sort of block that gap.
0:14:00 > 0:14:04But in post Roman Britain, you're not sure where your enemies are, and the rest of the province,
0:14:04 > 0:14:08what you'd normally regard as the rest of settled Roman Britain behind you,
0:14:08 > 0:14:12nasty things can happen down there too and you've got to be ready.
0:14:12 > 0:14:13That's very telling, isn't it?
0:14:13 > 0:14:15I mean I suppose during Roman Britain, the threat was
0:14:15 > 0:14:18up there towards Hadrian's Wall, the Picts coming down from Pictland?
0:14:18 > 0:14:21Now, enemies could be lurking anywhere.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25Absolutely anywhere in the territory around you. And you've got to narrow the gates and block
0:14:25 > 0:14:29bits of fort wall, rearm yourself and be prepared from any quarter.
0:14:29 > 0:14:34And so it's a sort of sense of coming inside and sort of bottling up all your energy in one place.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36And that's what's happened at Vindolanda here.
0:14:36 > 0:14:43This reaction to the perceived threat or danger coming from an area which should be perfectly safe.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51Things are really getting desperate.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55They're no longer quarrying fresh stone, so to repair fort walls like this,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58is that they go into things like big monumental buildings outside,
0:14:58 > 0:15:01where the Vicus used to be, they are tearing them down.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05And also the graveyards themselves haven't been immune.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08Some of the stones, when this was excavated, were actually
0:15:08 > 0:15:11tombstones from the cemetery, which is yeah, pretty rough.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13That's desperation, isn't it?
0:15:13 > 0:15:16It is, I mean, the living takes precedent over the dead.
0:15:16 > 0:15:17Unless they want to join the dead.
0:15:17 > 0:15:19That is the sort of philosophy behind it.
0:15:19 > 0:15:21But they're in such a hurry, when these
0:15:21 > 0:15:25blocks were found, it was just earth slapped in between the stones here.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28They are in a desperate hurry to get these defences up very quickly.
0:15:28 > 0:15:30Scrambling to improve their defences.
0:15:30 > 0:15:34Get them up quick, because you don't know who is going to come over the hill and assault you.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37This isn't about impressing people, this is about survival.
0:15:37 > 0:15:39And that is the huge difference.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52Bede gives us a vivid written description which
0:15:52 > 0:15:57seems to support much of what the archaeological evidence that places like Vindolanda tells us.
0:15:57 > 0:16:01He said that the British turned on each other
0:16:01 > 0:16:04to avoid starvation; they plundered and stole from one another.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07Some semblance of political authority must have survived
0:16:07 > 0:16:13for a while, because somebody wrote a letter to the Roman Emperor, begging for military assistance.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16It's become known as the "Groans of the Britons".
0:16:16 > 0:16:21In it, the author said, "that the Barbarians push us into the sea
0:16:21 > 0:16:25and the sea pushes us back into the arms of the Barbarians.
0:16:25 > 0:16:30There are two ways to die, to be drowned or to be slain."
0:16:30 > 0:16:34But these groans of the Britons fell on deaf ears.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37No help was coming.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50When the super power, Rome, crumbled,
0:16:50 > 0:16:54Britain's once vibrant economy came crashing down with it.
0:16:54 > 0:17:00The old life of villas, towns and trade collapsed.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Here's a classic example of what you'll get on a Roman military site.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10This lovely little coin here, this is a coin of Arcadias 393,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13one of the last sort of Roman issues to come to Britain, really.
0:17:13 > 0:17:18They start to get incredibly devalued, so people no longer trust money like they used to in the past.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22And so, no money is being minted, they can't trust the old stuff, so what do they do?
0:17:22 > 0:17:25How do you buy stuff at all?
0:17:25 > 0:17:29Well, the short answer is to melt down all the old Roman coins, extract
0:17:29 > 0:17:34the silver from them and the precious metals and use currency bars instead.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37And what we've got here, it's a solid silver ingot that was manufactured at
0:17:37 > 0:17:41Vindolanda by the people living here just at the end of Roman Britain.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44If you want to buy something, you chop a bit off, hand it to the dealer
0:17:44 > 0:17:47and he can trust that and can give you something for it.
0:17:47 > 0:17:52So how is this diminution of goods reflecting in the mood of the people?
0:17:52 > 0:17:56You can imagine an incredible nervous tension,
0:17:56 > 0:18:01expectation the violence, of possible violence at least.
0:18:01 > 0:18:04And very much the walls coming in all around you,
0:18:04 > 0:18:10because you've retreated into a place where you've fortified up and your world view has diminished completely.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13And it's not a happy or good place to be.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17And that is the position that people found themselves in along the line of Hadrian's
0:18:17 > 0:18:22Wall and places like Vindolanda, when the Roman garrison and the Roman economy, everything pulls out.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25It pulls the rug from underneath their feet.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40Roman civilisation had proved incredibly fragile.
0:18:43 > 0:18:45Those that could, went abroad.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50Among them, Patrick.
0:18:52 > 0:18:57It's no surprise that he left Britain, shocked as he must have been by its collapse.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03What is surprising is where he went -
0:19:03 > 0:19:06back to Ireland.
0:19:12 > 0:19:17Patrick claims that his motivation was a dream, in which a prophetic angel appeared to him, and told
0:19:17 > 0:19:20him to take his new faith "to the ends of the earth"
0:19:20 > 0:19:26and convert the Barbarian Irish, the people of course who'd once captured and enslaved him.
0:19:34 > 0:19:40When he made landfall in the North of Ireland, he brought with him the promise of a new civilisation,
0:19:44 > 0:19:47rooted in Christianity.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59But he was entering a land where Paganism ran deep.
0:20:08 > 0:20:14Ireland was a place of sacred trees, woods and lakes, presided over by Druids.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22Combining the roles of priest, wise man and ritual executioner,
0:20:22 > 0:20:25theirs was a religion of animal and human sacrifice...
0:20:29 > 0:20:34..Of blood on altars, and entrails used to tell the future.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46The Druid religion had once extended right across Western Europe.
0:20:48 > 0:20:54The Romans were so disturbed by it that they made it illegal - on pain of death.
0:20:56 > 0:21:03But Rome's authority had never extended into Ireland and here, it had continued to flourish.
0:21:06 > 0:21:12How could Patrick persuade these deeply Pagan people to adopt a new religion?
0:21:16 > 0:21:22He began, it seems, by going to where the old religion ran strongest.
0:21:35 > 0:21:40Even today, this moody glen shows signs of its Pagan associations.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47Rags are still tied to trees as divine intercessions - a
0:21:51 > 0:21:55practice that doubtless goes back deep into darker times.
0:22:00 > 0:22:04The old name is Alt na Diabhal, which means the Glen of the Devil, which
0:22:04 > 0:22:11indicates some kind of evil spirit, I suppose, and remains of Paganism and devil worshipping and so on.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14But the modern name is St Patrick's Well, St Patrick's Chair.
0:22:14 > 0:22:19Because of the tradition that St Patrick came here to preach the gospel to the Pagans.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22What's Patrick's business here in a Pagan site?
0:22:22 > 0:22:25I thought the whole point was to make Irish Christian?
0:22:25 > 0:22:29Of course, but you see, Patrick was a man with his feet firmly
0:22:29 > 0:22:33on the ground and he began where people were at, as we say nowadays.
0:22:33 > 0:22:40And he did his best to reinterpret for people their basic beliefs
0:22:40 > 0:22:45and the old Irish were very, very attached to places like this.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47The believed very much in a spirit world.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50I suppose that helped Patrick, because
0:22:50 > 0:22:54Christianity is also about a spirit world, but of a different kind.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57Did Patrick try and preach to them and convert them in those terms,
0:22:57 > 0:23:01talking about things that they already recognised as being holy?
0:23:01 > 0:23:06Absolutely. He made the simple transfer from these things which they worshipped, actually.
0:23:06 > 0:23:08I mean, they worshipped the sun, for example.
0:23:08 > 0:23:15The cycle of the seasons meant so much to them, that the sun was very, very powerful in their lives.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19Now he, by the very simple device of changing S U N to S O N,
0:23:19 > 0:23:24he changed the emphasis to Christ, who was the literally the son of God.
0:23:24 > 0:23:29So it's really interesting, he's using these very traditional
0:23:29 > 0:23:32gatherings and places to actually preach a new message.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34Very much so, very much so.
0:23:34 > 0:23:39This would have been totally, totally unchartered territory as far as Christianity was concerned.
0:23:39 > 0:23:44What Patrick brought was totally new, totally different and totally unexpected.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47What danger do you think he faced?
0:23:47 > 0:23:52Well, he says himself that he faced danger, not just from robbers and thieves, people who were
0:23:52 > 0:23:57out to take his belongings from him, but people who were hostile to what he was, to his message.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01People who felt threatened, particularly these Druids.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05Now they saw Patrick as a deadly enemy.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09They were the established religion and here they were, this man was coming in from another place and
0:24:09 > 0:24:16he was more or less preaching a different message and weaning their people from them to him.
0:24:32 > 0:24:38As he started to make new converts, Patrick was also converting Paganism itself.
0:24:42 > 0:24:47The sacred water of the druids became the holy water of baptism.
0:24:53 > 0:24:59Pagan sanctuaries were not destroyed, but transformed into Christian altars.
0:25:04 > 0:25:10Ancient festivals weren't abandoned, but co-opted and re-branded for the new religion.
0:25:21 > 0:25:25Patrick, the one-time slave, took on Ireland's rigid caste system,
0:25:28 > 0:25:34preaching a revolutionary message that was social as well as religious.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43I can see how this would have gained him support at the grass roots.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45But the elite had more to lose.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53How would Patrick detach them from the old ways?
0:26:08 > 0:26:13According to legend, he set his sights on the sacred heart of Irish power...
0:26:13 > 0:26:18..Seat of Ireland's premier High King...
0:26:20 > 0:26:23..the Hill of Tara.
0:26:26 > 0:26:31Within sight of Tara, on the night of the Pagan festival of Beltaine,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34Patrick is said to have lit a great fire.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37This flew in the face of ancient tradition, that stated that the
0:26:37 > 0:26:42High King himself should light the first fire of the night.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52It was a confrontational act.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56And that, it seems, was the whole idea.
0:27:02 > 0:27:08For daring to light the fire, Patrick was seized and dragged back to Tara.
0:27:12 > 0:27:18But he so impressed the High King with his Christian message that the King was converted.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26It all sounds like a neat story.
0:27:26 > 0:27:28Maybe that's all it is.
0:27:28 > 0:27:33The account is written 200 years after Patrick's mission, and by that stage he was already a saint, and so
0:27:33 > 0:27:39much of what was being written about him was what we call hagiography - a mixture of history and myth.
0:27:39 > 0:27:43But even if it's myth, it does tell us one important thing.
0:27:43 > 0:27:45It says that Patrick came here to Tara because it was
0:27:45 > 0:27:50the seat of the High King and the Pagan priests that surrounded him.
0:27:50 > 0:27:58By coming here, he was going to engage with political power and take on Paganism in its very heartland.
0:28:03 > 0:28:09I guess what surprises me so much about Patrick is how unbelievably successful he is.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13I mean, what is it about Christianity that's so attractive to these people?
0:28:13 > 0:28:17Patrick obviously replaced a way of life
0:28:19 > 0:28:23with another way of life, which people found much more satisfactory.
0:28:23 > 0:28:25That is the simple answer to your question.
0:28:25 > 0:28:32Probably, he gave people a new sense of their human dignity in a way that they had never experienced before.
0:28:32 > 0:28:36For example, he was totally against slavery,
0:28:36 > 0:28:40which was a very cruel
0:28:40 > 0:28:43part of the social fabric in olden times.
0:28:43 > 0:28:45The slave was at the very bottom of the pile,
0:28:45 > 0:28:48the slave had no rights whatever and Patrick put an end to all that.
0:28:48 > 0:28:50He preached very...
0:28:50 > 0:28:52took a very strong line on it.
0:28:52 > 0:28:58And was very, very outspoken when it came to people being attacked, his own converts in particular.
0:28:58 > 0:29:03I can see why this new faith appeals to the downtrodden, but people in charge matter.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07The princes, the aristocracy, what was in it for them?
0:29:07 > 0:29:09Patrick could read and write and there's no evidence that there
0:29:09 > 0:29:12was reading and writing in ancient Ireland.
0:29:12 > 0:29:16There was an enormous heritage there that Patrick brought to Ireland.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20The Latin language and all that went with it and the classics and so on.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25Throughout the world everywhere, people realised that the greatest
0:29:25 > 0:29:29benefit that you can convey on any group of people is education.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33To train people, not just to give them food or to give them money,
0:29:33 > 0:29:39but to actually train them to use their own wit, if you like, their own intelligence.
0:29:39 > 0:29:43And to devise ways and means by which they can enhance their lives.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45So it feels like he's bringing
0:29:45 > 0:29:47a wave of modernity with him?
0:29:47 > 0:29:50This was a huge revolution, you know, in thinking.
0:29:50 > 0:29:55Something that Patrick, because of his Christianity, he brought it with him to Ireland.
0:30:20 > 0:30:21I'm not a believer.
0:30:21 > 0:30:25But it's clear that this mission wasn't just about faith.
0:30:27 > 0:30:35Christianity was the one legacy of the Roman world that had survived the Empire's collapse.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39And it was now paving the way for a new civilisation.
0:30:40 > 0:30:47So this reconstruction of Patrick's first church, the site of a barn where he preached,
0:30:47 > 0:30:52marks not just the arrival of a new religion, but of a social and political revolution.
0:31:08 > 0:31:13The power of that revolution is symbolised by the Legend of Croagh Patrick.
0:31:19 > 0:31:26This was Ireland's most sacred mountain, home to Crom Dubh - God of fertility.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33It was the focus of the ancient harvest festival, Lughnasa,
0:31:33 > 0:31:39when the Pagan faithful ascended the mountain to engage in rituals of fertility and renewal.
0:31:44 > 0:31:50Today, it's Christian pilgrims who come here every year to mark Patrick's ascent.
0:32:04 > 0:32:08Well, I'm about... going for about two hours,
0:32:08 > 0:32:12and I think I'm near the top, although the weather's closed in a lot.
0:32:12 > 0:32:16It's very rocky, so I'm hugely impressed that many of the thousands of pilgrims
0:32:16 > 0:32:20that make this climb today, do so in bare feet to emulate Patrick.
0:32:20 > 0:32:25In fact, it's been dangerous over the centuries, being a pilgrim, and many have died of exposure
0:32:25 > 0:32:29as the weather's changed radically like it has done today.
0:32:29 > 0:32:34But Patrick wasn't climbing this mountain to test his personal resolve.
0:32:34 > 0:32:39This place had been sacred to Pagans for centuries before he got here,
0:32:39 > 0:32:43and Patrick was bringing Christianity in a spectacular way -
0:32:43 > 0:32:45to storm yet another Pagan stronghold.
0:32:52 > 0:32:54Like Christ entering the wilderness,
0:32:54 > 0:32:59Patrick is said to have clambered up here to fast for 40 days and 40 nights,
0:32:59 > 0:33:03where he endured wild storms and the attacks of devils.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11It's here, we're told, that he drove out the snakes of Ireland.
0:33:11 > 0:33:16Science now suggests that there had never been snakes here at all.
0:33:16 > 0:33:22But, like the fire on Tara, it's the symbolism that counts.
0:33:23 > 0:33:27From up here on the summit, with the broad sweep of the Atlantic Ocean in front of him,
0:33:27 > 0:33:31Patrick must have felt a certain sense of pride.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35This was as far west in Europe as Christianity had ever come.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38He really had brought his faith to the ends of the earth.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47This was Patrick's crowning glory.
0:33:47 > 0:33:52He had sown in Ireland the seeds of a new civilisation.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03But, for hundreds of miles that way, across the Irish Sea
0:34:03 > 0:34:09in the old Roman province of Britannia, things were taking a very different course.
0:34:18 > 0:34:24An ominous new chapter began, when three ships of heavily armed men landed on Britain's East Coast.
0:34:30 > 0:34:32Not for the last time in Britain's history,
0:34:32 > 0:34:37these troublemakers were Germans, with a few Danes thrown in for good measure.
0:34:37 > 0:34:39They were Saxons and Angles,
0:34:39 > 0:34:42Friesians and Jutes.
0:34:44 > 0:34:50Like the Irish and the Picts, these were Pagan warrior tribes never conquered by Rome.
0:35:02 > 0:35:05They seem to have been invited as mercenaries,
0:35:05 > 0:35:11to fight Britain's battles for her against traditional enemies like the Picts and the Irish.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14This was actually not such a crazy arrangement as it sounds.
0:35:14 > 0:35:19The Roman Empire itself had a tradition of using Barbarian mercenaries
0:35:19 > 0:35:20to bolster its own defence.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23Trouble was, the Roman Empire had money.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26Britain in the 5th century, with its ruined economy, didn't.
0:35:26 > 0:35:31The arrangement worked for a while but, eventually, it broke down.
0:35:31 > 0:35:36Unpaid and unfed, these German mercenaries soon took matters into their own hands.
0:35:36 > 0:35:38With catastrophic results.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47They plundered all the cities and the country.
0:35:47 > 0:35:54Spread the conflagration from sea to sea, without any opposition.
0:35:54 > 0:35:59People were destroyed with fire and sword.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02Even priests were slain.
0:36:06 > 0:36:13In a relatively short amount of time, they cut a swathe across the south and eastern parts
0:36:13 > 0:36:19of the old Roman province of Britannia, and there was nothing the inhabitants could do to stop them.
0:36:28 > 0:36:35Eventually, the British lost not only their liberty, but also their native language, Brythonic.
0:36:35 > 0:36:41The Saxons rebranded the conquered territory, and new place names emerged.
0:36:41 > 0:36:43Wessex and Sussex.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47Essex and Mercia.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52Indeed the Angles would, in time,
0:36:52 > 0:36:55give their name to a new nation - Aengle-land.
0:36:58 > 0:37:00England.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03And a new language -
0:37:03 > 0:37:05English.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22The conquered Britons became slaves for ever to their foes.
0:37:22 > 0:37:26Unsurprisingly many of them fled, some to the west of Britain,
0:37:26 > 0:37:29thousands more across the Channel to the continent.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32It became known as The Great Exodus.
0:37:32 > 0:37:38With them left the last vestiges of Roman rule - Christianity, literacy and technology.
0:37:38 > 0:37:43In their place, Saxon society was warlike, Pagan and illiterate.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07This reconstructed Anglo-Saxon village in Suffolk
0:38:07 > 0:38:12presents a very different image from the violent killers Bede describes.
0:38:12 > 0:38:20It seems to speak of an agricultural people, of settlers who merged with the local population.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23For years, scholars have argued both ways.
0:38:23 > 0:38:29But the latest research presents a more complex picture, and a more sinister one.
0:38:30 > 0:38:37Martin, I've always found it one of the biggest mysteries in British history.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41Were the Anglo-Saxons this sort of tide of Apocalyptic genocidal maniacs,
0:38:41 > 0:38:44or was there a bit more continuity than that?
0:38:44 > 0:38:46I think it depended very much on the area
0:38:46 > 0:38:48and very much on your status.
0:38:48 > 0:38:50If you were of the elite, the Anglo-Saxons
0:38:50 > 0:38:55might have been seen as an Apocalyptic tide of murderers, destroying your way of life.
0:38:55 > 0:38:59For the average person in the fields, life may not have changed much.
0:38:59 > 0:39:02I think the thing that's fascinating about this period is,
0:39:02 > 0:39:06the language goes, culture goes, town dwelling goes.
0:39:06 > 0:39:11I mean, this has got to be the greatest example in British history of a retreat from progress.
0:39:11 > 0:39:16To a large degree, yes, maybe pockets of survival in certain areas, but in general, yes.
0:39:16 > 0:39:22The Brythonic language seems to die away, it doesn't seem to have much impact on Old English either,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25very few lone words, very little obvious impacts on Old English.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28But why is that? I mean, you can see why people
0:39:28 > 0:39:31have postulated in the past, some sort of genocidal activity.
0:39:31 > 0:39:33Why do you think it does die out?
0:39:33 > 0:39:37I think it's not so much genocidal extermination as acculturation.
0:39:38 > 0:39:44So native Britons adopting the language, the customs, the dress of the incoming Anglo-Saxons.
0:39:44 > 0:39:49And over a number of generations, coming to think of themselves as Anglo-Saxons.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52It's a curious example I suppose, nowadays everyone talks about
0:39:52 > 0:39:55immigrants conforming and actually, it was the other way round.
0:39:55 > 0:40:00Absolutely. It seems to be the British going native, but in reverse, if you like.
0:40:00 > 0:40:05It's been suggested something like apartheid may have been operating in the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09Certainly we know from later law codes that if you're a native Briton
0:40:09 > 0:40:12in an Anglo-Saxon kingdom, you were in some way legally disadvantaged.
0:40:12 > 0:40:17If you were killed, someone had to pay a smaller fine than if they killed an Anglo-Saxon.
0:40:17 > 0:40:21So there may have been judicial advantages to going native in reverse,
0:40:21 > 0:40:25and also economic advantage, if you wanted to get on in this new society,
0:40:25 > 0:40:27it was best to emulate Anglo-Saxon ways.
0:40:31 > 0:40:38Native British culture clung on, in Cornwall, Wales and in the North-west.
0:40:41 > 0:40:45In fact, Welsh, the language of my grandmother's family,
0:40:45 > 0:40:49is the direct descendant of the ancient British language, Brythonic.
0:40:53 > 0:40:58But the lion's share of Britannia now belonged to the Saxons.
0:41:02 > 0:41:08Britain, once bathed in the light of Christianity and civilisation,
0:41:08 > 0:41:14was now plunged into the darkness of barbarity and Paganism.
0:41:22 > 0:41:26The contrast with Ireland, could not have been more stark.
0:41:28 > 0:41:32Christianity was transforming the once Pagan "land of winter"...
0:41:34 > 0:41:37..where the Irish were embracing the new religion.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52Some were drawn to the ascetic traditions of the hermits of the early church.
0:41:55 > 0:42:01Men like Kevin of Glendalough, who is said who have stood for hours on end in a freezing lake...
0:42:03 > 0:42:06..contemplating God.
0:42:09 > 0:42:13Kevin spent years living in that tiny cave on the other side of the Lough.
0:42:13 > 0:42:18He survived on berries and herbs and spent his time praying and contemplating.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21He used to spend hours in the Lough to sharpen his mind, and when that
0:42:21 > 0:42:24got too warm in the summer, he'd roll around in a bed of nettles.
0:42:24 > 0:42:30This ostentatious devotion was the way to win followers in the early Christian world,
0:42:30 > 0:42:35and eventually he quit his little cave, moved down the valley and formed a monastery.
0:43:13 > 0:43:19Located in the south-east of Ireland, the monastery at Glendalough began simply,
0:43:19 > 0:43:23with a few timber buildings and a handful of devoted followers.
0:43:26 > 0:43:32But it grew quickly, and the clutch of buildings eventually bore the name "The Monastic City".
0:43:43 > 0:43:48I'm struck by what a huge leap places like Glendalough represented,
0:43:48 > 0:43:54in a country that just 50 years before had no towns, no roads, and no stone buildings.
0:44:04 > 0:44:08Communities like Glendalough spread steadily across the country,
0:44:08 > 0:44:14and in time, Ireland would have one of the largest concentrations of monasteries anywhere in the world.
0:44:15 > 0:44:21But this place wasn't just about preaching the gospel, it was about technology as much theology.
0:44:21 > 0:44:25There was a modern hospital here, there were granaries, a library.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29You'd come here and find out about the latest agricultural methods.
0:44:29 > 0:44:34New materials were being issued like mortar, so you could build bigger and stronger houses.
0:44:34 > 0:44:38These were islands of modernity, and they were changing the world.
0:44:52 > 0:44:56As the monasteries spread, they brought new advances with them.
0:45:04 > 0:45:08Nendrum, one of the oldest monasteries in Ireland, is on Strangford Lough,
0:45:08 > 0:45:11where Patrick first made landfall at the start of his mission.
0:45:19 > 0:45:24And in the Lough beside Nendrum, archaeologists made a recent discovery that reveals
0:45:24 > 0:45:28just how radically the monks were transforming life in Ireland.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32This is the remains of the oldest tidal mill in the world.
0:45:32 > 0:45:37And we know it dates about 619, 621.
0:45:39 > 0:45:42The technology that was involved in this is quite simple,
0:45:42 > 0:45:45but it is spectacular just to think about what they did.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48They clearly created a dam across here.
0:45:48 > 0:45:52The dam is made of stones, clay, riveted with timbers.
0:45:52 > 0:45:58The dam is probably about six metres across, runs for 110m to create the mill pond,
0:45:58 > 0:46:03and they did that, and as well as that they lined the base of the mill pond with impermeable clay,
0:46:03 > 0:46:07so the water would stay in, rather than seeping through the floor.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10So it's quite a remarkable feat of technology.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14And so you'd have the dam here with sluice gates in it.
0:46:14 > 0:46:17The sluice gates let the tide in, they close the gates to create a pond
0:46:17 > 0:46:22and then when the tide goes out, they use that water to drive a mill,
0:46:22 > 0:46:25and basically would grind corn for the monastery.
0:46:25 > 0:46:27- That's renewable energy? - Renewable energy.
0:46:27 > 0:46:30And for those times, you know, remarkable energy.
0:46:30 > 0:46:34One of the interesting things about THIS mill, which as I said,
0:46:34 > 0:46:37is the oldest tidal mill in the world, is that it exists in Ireland.
0:46:37 > 0:46:40Ireland in those days was right at the edge of the known world,
0:46:40 > 0:46:46and yet here you have the development of one of the most advanced technologies in the known world.
0:46:46 > 0:46:48So quite spectacular, really.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51What does this sophistication say about Ireland in that period?
0:46:51 > 0:46:53I think it says something very important.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57You have monasteries, very important features in the landscape,
0:46:57 > 0:46:59but in a traditional view, these were holy places,
0:46:59 > 0:47:05they weren't places which really interacted with the rest of the landscape in any kind of serious way.
0:47:05 > 0:47:10What this kind of technology's showing us, is that monasteries were more than just holy places.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13They were also places where monks developed production,
0:47:13 > 0:47:16where monks got involved in worldly affairs,
0:47:16 > 0:47:20and they interacted with their communities in much more serious ways than we imagined.
0:47:20 > 0:47:24I've always been very sceptical about Christianity and why it's so popular,
0:47:24 > 0:47:28but coming here, suddenly, it's very clear, isn't it?
0:47:28 > 0:47:30This is economic dynamism, modernity, ideas, technology.
0:47:30 > 0:47:35This was previously a period when people believed Ireland was a landscape that was
0:47:35 > 0:47:38tribal, rural and familiar, as one scholar called it.
0:47:38 > 0:47:43Basically, with monasteries as very focal points within that. This is happening earlier in Ireland,
0:47:43 > 0:47:48probably 50 to maybe 100 years earlier than it's happening in England.
0:48:02 > 0:48:08But it was another form of technology, one that lay at the very heart of Roman civilisation,
0:48:08 > 0:48:11that was really to revolutionise Ireland.
0:48:17 > 0:48:22Nowadays, books and libraries are so much part of our culture that it's impossible
0:48:22 > 0:48:24to imagine a time without them.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28But the 6th century was just such a time.
0:48:28 > 0:48:30Of course there had been books under the Romans,
0:48:30 > 0:48:34in fact there were dozens of public libraries throughout the Empire.
0:48:34 > 0:48:39But after Rome fell, one chronicler wrote that "libraries, like tombs, were shut up forever."
0:48:39 > 0:48:43If it hadn't been for the Irish monasteries and the monks working in them,
0:48:43 > 0:48:48then culture and learning and writing could have been eradicated in Western Europe.
0:48:48 > 0:48:53And central to that transmission of learning, were manuscripts.
0:49:00 > 0:49:07Soon, every monastery had its own Scriptorium, where newly trained scribes copied and copied...
0:49:13 > 0:49:18..Everything from the Old and New Testaments to Latin and Greek classics.
0:49:27 > 0:49:32Their ancient art is almost lost, but a handful of professional scribes are still at work today.
0:49:32 > 0:49:35Is this what you write on over here?
0:49:36 > 0:49:40Well, this is Vellum, which is calfskin.
0:49:40 > 0:49:46And so they would have had to skin the calf and prepare the Vellum,
0:49:46 > 0:49:49which takes anywhere between six months to a year.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53- This is exactly the same as they would have used a millennia ago? - Close enough.
0:49:53 > 0:49:55So can you give me an example on here?
0:49:55 > 0:49:59Historically, what you would do is, you prick the Vellum...
0:50:04 > 0:50:06..Line up the wheel on both sides...
0:50:09 > 0:50:11..And then you score the Vellum.
0:50:12 > 0:50:17I mean, it sounds stupid, but it is an incredibly intricate process, isn't it?
0:50:17 > 0:50:22How much of this can you do in one day? How many words could you write in one day?
0:50:22 > 0:50:24It depends on the script, that is the real problem.
0:50:24 > 0:50:30It also depends on the humidity, you know, because the humidity will affect how the ink flows,
0:50:30 > 0:50:35and it will also affect how the Vellum works, because Vellum is very temperamental.
0:50:35 > 0:50:39And if it's too humid, the Vellum just curls up on you.
0:50:40 > 0:50:46And once you have scored the Vellum, you would have hopefully spent the time last year
0:50:46 > 0:50:51getting your oak galls and everything in order, to have your ink ready to start writing.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54And hopefully you would have managed your geese enough
0:50:54 > 0:50:56to have some feathers to work with as well.
0:50:57 > 0:51:02Now, the iron gall ink will get darker on exposure to oxygen, to the atmosphere.
0:51:16 > 0:51:18And that is getting darker, isn't it?
0:51:18 > 0:51:21And that gets darker and you can just see
0:51:21 > 0:51:24the scored lines just underneath the text.
0:51:24 > 0:51:26Can I have a quick go and see if I can do it?
0:51:26 > 0:51:30I think the first problem you will encounter is writing with a quill.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34It's much more difficult than writing with a metal pen.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37- With a Biro.- So be a little bit light to the touch.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41So you want to try to keep the full width of the nib on the page.
0:51:45 > 0:51:49I see what you mean. You've got to use your whole arm, haven't you?
0:51:53 > 0:51:57But yeah, it definitely involves, obviously concentration,
0:51:57 > 0:52:01but it's more physical than simply scratching something out.
0:52:01 > 0:52:06- It is hugely physical.- Do you think being a scribe would have been the soft touch in a monastery?
0:52:06 > 0:52:10Conditions would have been fairly unpleasant all the time.
0:52:10 > 0:52:14Because you have to deal with the cold, you have to deal with the wet.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17You have to deal with your fingers getting cold.
0:52:17 > 0:52:22You have problems with the light and problems with the Vellum
0:52:22 > 0:52:28reacting to the sort of climatic variations, temperature, humidity, pressure, that sort of thing.
0:52:28 > 0:52:33What was it like for you, the first time that you worked with Vellum and quills?
0:52:33 > 0:52:38The quill will produce a line that nothing man-made can produce.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41It will allow you to pull ink out of a pool of ink.
0:52:41 > 0:52:46You try doing this on a piece of paper and you ruin the sheet of paper, you ruin the nib.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49But what happens...
0:52:49 > 0:52:53between a quill and a piece of Vellum
0:52:53 > 0:52:54is magic.
0:53:11 > 0:53:17This manuscript is known as the Stowe Missal and it was written in an Irish monastery in the 700s.
0:53:17 > 0:53:21It's hard to believe that this beautiful book is over 1,200 years old.
0:53:21 > 0:53:25It's certainly the oldest manuscript I've ever had the privilege of handling.
0:53:25 > 0:53:31It's actually a Latin mass book, it was deliberately made this small so a priest could carry it around.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35It could be portable during his trips around the countryside tending to his flock.
0:53:35 > 0:53:40It contains the Order of Service for Communion, for Baptisms and for visiting the sick.
0:53:42 > 0:53:44This book has had a colourful life.
0:53:44 > 0:53:49It spent a couple of hundred years hidden inside the wall of an Irish castle to keep it safe,
0:53:49 > 0:53:52and that process means that sadly it suffered a bit of damage.
0:53:52 > 0:53:56But on these damaged pages back here, there's another gem.
0:53:57 > 0:54:01It's one of the oldest examples of written Irish anywhere in the world.
0:54:01 > 0:54:07Three ancient spells to be read out to people suffering from common ailments.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13Manuscripts like this one show the power of the written word.
0:54:13 > 0:54:15Not only do they transmit the knowledge of the ancient
0:54:15 > 0:54:20through to the present and future, but they help the spread and practice of Christianity.
0:54:20 > 0:54:26And they're fostering the development of Irish as a new written language.
0:54:42 > 0:54:49This social and cultural revolution sparked by Irish monasteries soon took on an international dimension.
0:54:54 > 0:54:58One of the great things about Ireland in this period is the relationship
0:54:58 > 0:55:01that it enjoyed with the European mainland.
0:55:01 > 0:55:03And many, many scholars coming from
0:55:03 > 0:55:07the European mainland to attend and to study in Irish monasteries,
0:55:07 > 0:55:10but also the other process going on with Irish monasteries going out on
0:55:10 > 0:55:17a great wave of monastic foundations in Europe in the early medieval period.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20And it's pretty amazing, it shows that Ireland,
0:55:20 > 0:55:26that transition from being on the edge of the earth, to suddenly being this hot house for scholarship?
0:55:26 > 0:55:32Yeah, absolutely. That Ireland, which was, you know, on the very edge of the Roman world, never Romanised.
0:55:32 > 0:55:34But all of a sudden, because of Christianity,
0:55:34 > 0:55:37because of this kind of movement of monastic communities
0:55:37 > 0:55:41from North Africa along the Atlantic seaboard, into Ireland, and all of a sudden,
0:55:41 > 0:55:46that which had been entirely on the edge of the world suddenly became central to
0:55:46 > 0:55:49the perpetuation and the re-introduction of Christianity
0:55:49 > 0:55:51into many parts of continental Europe.
0:56:11 > 0:56:17Irish monks and books poured into Europe, and dozens of Irish monasteries were established.
0:56:21 > 0:56:25Luxeuil became the most important and flourishing monastery in France.
0:56:27 > 0:56:32Bobbio in Italy eventually boasted one of the greatest libraries of the Middle Ages.
0:56:34 > 0:56:39And St Gallen in Switzerland preserves a unique document -
0:56:39 > 0:56:45the only surviving architectural plan made in Europe since the fall of Rome.
0:56:47 > 0:56:52A blueprint for a modern monastery, founded by the Irish.
0:57:08 > 0:57:13Ireland had become the cradle of a new European civilisation.
0:57:15 > 0:57:18They had not only inherited the knowledge of the classical world,
0:57:18 > 0:57:22but they had transformed it into something new...
0:57:23 > 0:57:29..a civilisation of monasteries that would form the foundations of a world every bit as great as Rome's.
0:57:36 > 0:57:38But where the Romans had used military might,
0:57:38 > 0:57:45the Irish were spreading civilisation through faith, learning and the power of ideas.
0:57:45 > 0:57:49Europe was already feeling the benefits.
0:57:55 > 0:57:58But Ireland's strife-torn neighbours, the future nations
0:57:58 > 0:58:03of England and Scotland, remained stubbornly pagan.
0:58:06 > 0:58:10Soon, Irish Christianity would face its greatest challenge yet -
0:58:10 > 0:58:17to try to bring the new civilisation back to Barbarian Britain.
0:58:47 > 0:58:50Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:50 > 0:58:53E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk